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Wonder Woman (TV Series)
Wonder Woman was a television series Wonder Woman, starring Lynda Carter in the title role. Wonder Woman aired on two American networks between 1975 and 1979. Summary In 1974, John Black had written and produced a TV movie starring Cathy Lee Crosby, which described the character as essentially a contemporary version of the female spy . Though not successful at the first attempt, ABC still felt a Wonder Woman series had potential, and within a year another pilot was in production. Douglas S. Cramer and Wilford Lloyd Baumes were given the assignment to produce it. Keen to distinguish their work from Black's pilot, Cramer and Baumes gave their pilot the rather paradoxical title "The New Original Wonder Woman". This pilot is available in its original length on the first season DVD, instead of the re-edited version of it which runs 60 mins and was featured as the pilot when the series debuted a year later. This version is also the one shown on reruns. On the DVD version, however, the 1975 pilot movie title is changed to simply "Wonder Woman," and the bullet-deflecting animated sequence is replaced by the lasso toss in the animated introduction and the rest of the television series. Cramer and Baumes gave scripting duties to Stanley Ralph Ross, who had worked on Greenway-Greenlawn Productions's unbroadcast Wonder Woman pilot reel, but this time, he was instructed to be more faithful to the comic book and to create a subtle "high comedy." Ross set the pilot in World War II, the era in which the original comic book began. Thanks to a generous budget and more relaxed shooting schedule, the feature length pilot was able to attain a level of polish and special effects beyond that of regular episodic television at the time. Some of these effects, such as the expensive full sized invisible plane prop and the stunt bracelets were then able to be carried forward into the series proper. After an intensive talent search, former beauty pageant winner from Arizona Lynda Carter was chosen to play the lead role. For the key role of Steve Trevor, the producers chose Lyle Waggoner, who at the time was better known as a comedic actor after several years co-starring in . He had also been one of the leading candidates to play Batman a decade earlier. Although the pilot followed the original comic book closely, in particular the aspect of Wonder Woman joining the military under the assumed name, Diana Prince, a number of elements were dropped, presumably for practical reasons. The character of Etta Candy was no longer an obese member of Holliday College (the Holliday Girls never featured in the show), but a mature work colleague of Diana Prince. The ancient myths and legends which informed many of the early Wonder Woman comic book stories were lost too, in favour of more conventional stories involving Nazis. And, on a minor note, Steve Trevor was no longer blonde, but dark haired. One change which was later to become synonymous with the show was the twirling transformation which dissolved Diana Prince into Wonder Woman. Lynda Carter claims to have suggested the move herself, having studied dance as a child. Coincidentally, this slow motion dissolve is similar to the illustrated "running" change sequences in the comic books of the era, in which Diana would peel off her uniform and add her tiara and boots. In both versions she is left with her outer clothing to stow somewhere. Following their success with Batman '66, DC began publishing a comic book continuation of the series, written by Marc Andreyko, in 2015. Cast Episodes Season One Season Two Season Three Trivia *In the Arrowverse special tie-in comic Crisis on Infinite Earths Giant, this world is designated Earth-76. **The number comes from 1976, which is when the show first aired. See Also * Batman '66 Meets Wonder Woman '77 * Wonder Woman '77 * Wonder Woman '77 Meets the Bionic Woman Links * Wonder Woman (TV series) at Wikipedia * Wonder Woman (TV Series) at TV.com * Wonder Woman (TV Series) at the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) Category:Wonder Woman (TV Series) Category:Realities Category:TV and Movie Realities Category:Live-Action Series Category:1975